DESCRIPTION Cable Types & Uses Timeline The Players Benefits FAQ

Alaska United is a high capacity (up to OC-192 or 10 Gbps), fiber optic communication network connecting Alaska's major population centers with the lower 48 states. It will use state-of-the-art optical amplification and be plow buried from shore station to 4,900 ft. to avoid external aggressions. A collapsed SONET ring will provide equipment redundancy. Route diversity can be achieved by pairing connectivity to the North Pacific Cable. Alaska United has a minimum service life of 25 years. AU Cable Types and Uses Double Armor - Beach to 650 ft. depth, heavy surf zones and reefs Light Wire Armor - 650 to 5,000 ft. depth, light surf Special Protection Application - 5,000 to 8,000 ft. depth, at branching units and deep water chafing areas Light Weight Armor - Greater than 5,000 ft. depth in benign areas Timelines Subsea Route Survey Nov - Dec 1996 Design & Specification Dec 96 - June 97 Supply Contract Signed July 97 Financing Secured July 97 Manufacture of Cable & Electronics    Aug 97 - Aug 98 Overland Cable Installed Aug 97 - Nov 98 Subsea Cable Installed Aug 98 - Oct 98 Testing Nov 98 - Dec 98 Service Commencement Dec 98 The Players Alaska United is a partnership of two wholly-owned subsidiaries of GCI. It was formed to build and operate the first fiber optic cable system linking Alaska's major population centers to the lower 48 states. Its parent company, GCI, was founded by two Alaska entrepreneurs in 1979 and has since grown to be the state's leading provider of integrated communication services. GCI offers local and long-distance telephone, wireless, data and cable television services to more than 125,000 Alaska customers. Tyco Submarine Systems (TSS), formerly known as AT&T Submarine Systems, will design, engineer, manufacture and install Alaska United. TSS is the largest supplier of submarine cable systems in the world, having installed more than 155,000 miles of undersea cable. The company holds ISO 9000 certification for design and manufacturing quality attesting to its leadership position in the industry. Seafloor Surveys International (SSI) surveyed the route Alaska United will follow. SSI has three fully outfitted ships-of-opportunity for swath surveys using towed Sys09 and Sys100 bathymetric side-scan systems with associated navigation, bottom sampling, and onboard charting facilities. The company also leads the development of new Fugro Group technology. Benefits Capacity Currently, only one fiber optic cable connects Alaska with the contiguous United States. This cable, the Alaska Spur of the North Pacific Cable, has a transport capacity of 420 Mb/s or enough to carry 6,048 simultaneous voice or data calls. The Alaska Spur lands in Seward and terminates in Anchorage. The remainder of the state does not have fiber optic connectivity to the lower 48 states. When Alaska United is constructed, fiber optic capacity will immediately multiply five times. This can be increased up to 22 times the current capacity by adding shore-based electronic equipment. The total design capacity of Alaska United is 10 Gb/s or enough to carry 129,024 simultaneous voice or data calls. Additionally, Alaska United will extend fiber capacity to Fairbanks via Valdez, and to Juneau. Why Fiber? Fiber optics is the preferred method of carrying voice, video and data communications. It allows for optimization of transmission equipment because of its lack of delay found in satellite connections. Its superior information carrying capacity enables the deployment of bandwidth hungry applications. Fiber optic cables also are totally insensitive to electromagnetic interference and offer a secure link because of their immunity to eavesdropping. So What? For residential users, applications like high-speed Internet and ISDN which support PC-video conferencing for home or office are now possible. Enhanced video services like movies-on-demand and distance education are likewise possible. In addition, Alaska United will eventually enhance GCI’s cable television services by creating the capacity necessary to offer Alaska programming, rather than lower 48 satellite feeds. For business users, new technologies like ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and PRI-ISDN will, for the first time, allow businesses to access large capacities of bandwidth as needed. For government, education and military users, broadband applications with security, equipment redundancy and route diversity can be achieved for the first time. Even users who don’t live in an area served directly by Alaska United will realize benefits. Alaska United will allow GCI and other carriers to use satellite capacity more efficiently. More available satellite capacity allows the network to deliver broadband applications to smaller communities more economically. Frequently Asked Questions What is Alaska United and how is it organized? Alaska United is a partnership of two wholly-owned subsidiaries of GCI. It will be the state’s first fiber optic network to connect the largest population centers of Alaska. Alaska United will use undersea and terrestrial connections to extend high capacity fiber optics to Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Whittier and Valdez. Alaska United is the communications equivalent of an Interstate highway system. It will enable the deployment of new, bandwidth hungry communication applications such as faster Internet, ISDN, video conferencing, telemedicine and distance education. Alaska United, when combined with GCI's previous investments in Alaska tailored satellite capacity (Galaxy IX and Galaxy X), will provide unparalleled communication coverage throughout the state. Why build this cable now? Customers in Alaska are already starved for bandwidth capacity, and that demand is expected to grow sharply in the coming years. This bandwidth crunch potentially restricts the deployment of new communication services and the development and diversification of the state's economy. What fiber connectivity currently exists in Alaska? Very little. The North Pacific Cable (NPC) terminates in Seward with a terrestrial fiber that connects to Anchorage. Currently, the NPC has a total capacity of nine DS-3 (420 Mb/s) or approximately 6,048 clear channel voice/data circuits. There is no fiber to Juneau, and has been none to Fairbanks. The NPC cannot be upgraded to support additional capacity because of the older technology it employs. What are the capacities of this new cable? At start-up, a minimum of OC-48 = 32,256 voice/data circuits at 2.5 GB/s (5.3x current). As demand increases, capacity can be upgraded to OC-192 = 129,024 voice/data circuits at 10 Gb/s (22x current). Capacity is upgraded by adding optical electronics at the shore station--no "wet plant" work is required. What is the route? How was it selected? Drawing on the results of a month-long marine survey conducted for GCI by TSS in late 1996, the exact cable route was selected to avoid areas of heavy bottom fishing. None of the landing stations is more than 50 miles from its associated city. Inland extensions to Juneau, Anchorage and Seattle will be configured in a physically diverse SONET ring to afford maximum protection against outage. What are the vitals of Alaska United? LENGTH--Alaska United is a total of 2,331 statute miles of which 1,995 is subsea and 336 is overland. Seattle to branching unit is 963 miles. Branching unit to Juneau is 286 miles. Branching unit to Whittier is 638 miles. Whittier to Valdez is 108 miles. Valdez to Fairbanks is an estimated 284 miles. Whittier to Anchorage is 50 miles. REPEATERS-- Alaska United includes 33 optical amplifiers (also called EDFAs, Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifiers). These undersea amplifiers are integrated into the cable and are powered by "constant-current" PFEs (power feed equipment) located at the three cable landing stations. These EDFAs amplify the optical signal without any conversion to an intermediate electrical signal. STRANDS--Alaska United has been designed to support WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) whereby four separate wavelengths (colors) each can carry an OC-48 (optical carrier level 48 which is 2.48832 Mbps or 32,256 traditional voice circuits). Initially Alaska United will carry one OC-48 signal. Each fiber pair can be upgraded to OC-192 by adding shore-based electronics without changing the wet plant. Alaska United has four fiber strands in all cable cross-sections (i.e., 2-fiber ring in a common cable sheath). One PSBU (power-switched branching unit) is included in Alaska United and provides a common point where the three undersea cable segments are joined. The PSBU provides the ability to remotely switch the power configuration of the cable and thereby enhance system reliability. The SONET terminal equipment can interface standard asynchronous and synchronous circuit types including: DS-1, DS-3, OC-1, OC-3, OC-12, and EC-1 (electrical carrier level 1). What is SONET and how is it an advantage? SONET stands for Synchronous Optical NETwork and is a fiber optic transport standard developed by ANSI (American National Standard Institute). SONET has the key advantages of providing high-capacity fiber optic transport, defines a system of synchronous signal levels, includes a high-level of OAM&P (Operations, Administration, Maintenance, and Provisioning) capability, supports automatic protection switching, allows a high-degree of interoperability between different vendor platforms, etc. Relative to Alaska United, define protection, bit error rate, route diversity? PROTECTION--Unlike most terrestrial SONET systems, subsea systems are often configured as a "collapsed ring". A collapsed ring means that a 2-fiber transmission ring is contained in a single common cable sheath. The reason for this is the relatively high capital cost of subsea systems (i.e., it would nearly double the capital cost to lay two diversely routed cables). This is why the route selection and installation of a subsea system is so critical to prevent damage to the cable. Since Alaska United is a SONET system it includes automatic protection switching (APS) to protect against failure of any individual electronic or fiber optic component. BER--the ratio of error bits to the total number of bits transmitted. Alaska United is an astoundingly small one bit error occurring every 10,000,000,000,000 (trillion) bits sent (this is three to four orders of magnitude better than satellite or microwave). DIVERSITY--by itself, Alaska United does not have "route diversity" since the fiber ring is contained in a common cable sheath. However, by pairing connectivity on the NPC, true route diversity can be achieved. What types of hazards does a subsea cable face? The primary causes of external aggression are bottom fishing, ocean currents, and geological events such as earthquakes and volcanoes. However, 95 percent of failures are attributable to fishing activities. To guard against these factors, Alaska United will be plow buried from shore to a depth of 4,900 feet or greater except in rocky areas where bottom conditions don't permit burial or fishing. Additionally, the route was adjusted to avoid geological hazards. What precautions have been taken to minimize hazards? The cable route has been selected to avoid as many external aggression factors as feasibly possible. Extensive research of fishing activities and practices has been done to avoid busy fishing areas. Cable armoring and burial is planned in areas where potential fishing is unavoidable. GCI will ensure that the Alaska United cable route is identified as a "cable protection route" on nautical charts. GCI will also actively communicate with the fishing industry and monitor fishing activities to decrease the possibility of damage to the cable.